General – Daniel Jacobus Elardus (Maroela) Erasmus

General Daniel Jacobus Elardus (Maroela) Erasmus
General D J E (Maroela) Erasmus was born in 1845 in Doornkloof, Pretoria, Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek, and began his military career aged 16 in 1861. He was at the engagement of Bronkhorstspruit in 1880 during the First Anglo Boer War, and became a Commandant at the Siege of Pretoria. He was part of the force that opposed the incursion of the Jameson Raiders in 1896. In of the first engagements of the Boer War, on the evening of 19 October, two Boer forces from the independent South African Republic, each numbering 4,000 men under General Lukas Meyer and General “Maroela” Erasmus closed in on Dundee. General Erasmus was expected to use his force in support of General Lukas Meyer at the Battle of Talana (20 October 1899), but he failed to engage the British. He was involved in the Siege of Ladysmith and later operated in the area around Pretoria. He was a surly man and in August 1900 he was demoted to Commandant because of his failure to act. He was captured in the Eastern Transvaal in January 1902 and sent to St Helena.
He died May 7, 1914 in Pretoria